


A Possibility

by JMariusG



Series: Sunflower Seeds [1]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Angst, Character Study, F/M, Female Uzumaki Naruto, Fluff, Konoha History, Nara Clan Lore, Nara Fixation, Politics, Pre-Konoha Village, Uzumaki Clan Lore, Yoshino Centric, author loves being ridiculously descriptive
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-20
Updated: 2021-02-19
Packaged: 2021-03-16 04:27:15
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,556
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29570304
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JMariusG/pseuds/JMariusG
Summary: There is a very strong possibility that Shikamaru has fixated on Naruto.
Relationships: Nara Shikaku/Nara Yoshino, Nara Shikamaru/Uzumaki Naruto
Series: Sunflower Seeds [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2172471
Comments: 11
Kudos: 288





	1. Interests

**A Possibility**

Shikamaru and Shikaku both came home with...interesting expressions on their faces. Shikamaru’s expression worried Yoshino Nara the most since her seven year old son’s expression rarely changed from the exasperated fatigue that had the child’s eyes perpetually narrowed in sleepiness and lips pressed into a firm line in order to suppress his yawns. Shikamaru’s face was alight with bewildered awe, like he had seen Kami and was both moved and confused by the sighting. Whatever had caused the normally nonchalant child to make that face must have influenced his father’s expression as Shikaku Nara’s face looked both amused and confused.

If not for the awed shock on her son’s face, Yoshino would have been more concerned for the look on her husband’s. Shikaku Nara was rarely genuinely confused. (Yoshino had known the man since she was three and he was six, and had only seen him confused five times, this time being the fifth). Shikaku of course did and could look confused, but as his wife, Yoshino knew that most often the man was faking it for whatever plan he was seeing into fruition. No, the man was _genuinely_ confused. But also...amused?

Yoshino straightened from her position bent over the counter kneading the dough for the melon pan bread she was making and sent her husband a look. The man in question sighed before shrugging. 

“Welcome home Shika, Maru-kun. How was school Shikamaru?” 

Shikamaru blinked a few times before his eyes focused on his mother. While her son looked like a replica of his father, the eyes that stared back at her were her own. The boy frowned before he muttered, “Can you place the sun in your hair?”

Yoshino saw Shikaku blink and look down at their son in even more amusement than he already was, the confusion draining from his face to be replaced with mirth. 

“Mom?” Shikamaru’s voice shocked her out of her study of her husband’s facial expressions. Yoshino didn’t know how to answer this question. (The answer was no but she knew that Shikamaru wasn’t asking her if it was _physically_ possible).

“Well, literally no, but some people do have sun-kissed features I guess you could say. Hair is one of those features?” She hadn’t meant for that last part to be a question but she was confused. Shikamaru didn’t ask meaningless questions, in fact, she often got the feeling that when he asked a question that he already knew the answer but was asking out of curiosity for what she would say. (She did the same thing to Shikaku when she asked if he had been drinking with his teammates instead of in his office at the Hokage Tower.)

Shikamaru nodded, that same furrow between his brows getting even deeper. He opened his mouth before closing it again. Shikamaru seemed to shake himself before he said, “School was troublesome” and promptly yawned and walked into the backyard. Looking after him, Yoshino saw him pet one of the many deer that wandered around the Nara property before slumping against the oak tree that pointed towards the house. She didn’t need to see her son’s eyes to know that they were closed. Yoshino rolled her eyes in annoyance. Would it kill Shikamaru to do more than nap?

A snort drew her attention to her husband who was also watching their son. She knew that he could feel her watching him, Shikaku wasn’t the Jonin Commander for his good looks after all, but knew that he would talk when he felt like it. Yoshino returned to kneading her dough, her mind whirring with possibilities.

She knew that Yamanaka Yuriko would not be having the same type of curiosity about this encounter if her daughter, Ino, had come to her with the same question. Yuriko often thought that Yoshino was overreacting when it came to Shikamaru and his actions (“Children are weird Yoshi-chan. Relax, I mean, I know he’s a Nara but even they go through childhood like the rest of us ya know?”)

Yuriko would be right if Nara children did in fact go through childhood the same way that other kids did. Since being married into the relaxed clan at age fifteen, Yoshino had noticed that the Nara were _not_ like normal people. They didn’t feel as others did, react as others did, and definitely didn’t _think_ as others did. No, Yoshino was right to be worried about Shikamaru’s emotional responses and reactions. Nara children were not normal children and thus needed to be indoctrinated into the ways of normalcy that was innate into other children. Shikamaru’s actions today were both worrying and relieving to Yoshino. On the one hand, he was displaying a childlike curiosity that he rarely did with that random question. On the other hand though, what the fuck was up with that question?

“He met Uzumaki Naruto today. He said she was pretty.” Shikaku paused before continuing in a bemused voice, “He said the sun must love her if it decided to live in her hair and light up her skin.” He was still looking out into the backyard at their son who was now most definitely asleep if the laxness of his body was any indication. “I’ve never heard him sound like that Yo-chan. His voice was so soft and full of wonder.”

Yoshino pondered this statement as she prepared to separate the dough. Uzumaki Naruto was the Jinchuriki of the Kyuubi no Kitsune and was also the daughter of her husband’s former best friend, Namikaze Minato and one of _her_ best friends, Uzumaki Kushina. The girl was beautiful and striking in an almost unnerving way. Shikaku’s rendition of their son’s description of the girl wasn’t far off. She was a perfect mix of the sharp lethality of her father and the intoxicating softness of her mother. She had often seen the little Uzumaki running around and had spent five years along with Hyuuga Hitomi, Akimichi Kiyoko , and Uchiha Mikoto attempting to adopt the child. Or sponsor her at least. The Sandaime’s repeated and increasingly angered refusals towards the four women had led to them forming a coalition with Inuzuka Tsume and Aburame Mei to ensure that the legacy of their dear friend Kushina wanted for nothing and was protected around the clock after...incidents had occurred through the incompetence of the Sandaime, the hatred of the villagers for the innocent child, and the machinations of one Shimura Danzo. 

She wasn’t surprised that her son had noticed the girl. She was surprised that he noticed her enough to comment on her appearance. 

A dozen piles of dough sat spread out on the counter in front of her. Wiping her hands on a dish towel, Yoshino looked up to find her husband observing her in that way of his that said he had calculated the many reactions that she could have and was eager to see which of his calculations played out. She frowned at him before turning and reaching into the cupboard to get more flour in order to refill the canister that she had emptied. “Well good to know he has good taste in women,” she remarked as the hiss of flour leaving the bag and filling the canister replaced the silence between the couple.

“I think he fixated on her.”

Yoshino looked up. “What?”

“I think,” Shikaku repeated his lips upturned at the corners ever so slightly, “that he fixated on her.”

“The Nara Fixation isn’t a choice is it?” She didn’t _think_ it was anyway. 

“It’s not normally. But there have only been five, if we’re counting this possibility of Shikamaru’s fixation on Naruto, human recipients of the Nara Fixation. We know what happens to us when something bad happens to our Fixation but other than that, there’s not too much information on Fixations that aren’t hobby related. I mean, the first two instances of human Fixations were believed to be clan legends before Nara Kimi fixated on a person. She’s the reason we know what happens to a Nara who’s Fixation dies after all.”

A chill went up her spine as she recalls the tale of Nara Kimi, one of three female heads of the Nara clan and Shikaku’s three-times great grandmother. Nara Kimi found her Fixation,a Senju named Yoshihiro, who died during the Warring Clans era at the hands of the Uchiha. Kimi went insane and wiped out a platoon of Uchiha who were patrolling the area around the Senju compound after a brief armistice between the two clans was called after Senju Yamatsu and Uchiha Kin, the then clan heads of each respective clan, had killed each other. Kimi’s twenty-five person killing spree and subsequent suicide re-ignited the Senju-Uchiha war (Kimi was one of the few Nara who wasn’t a brunette but was a dirty blonde and thus mistaken for a Senju) which wouldn’t end until the Shodaime built Konoha with the help of Uchiha Madara. 

Kimi had not only left her three sons and two daughters, orphans but she’d also managed to scare the Uchiha enough that they made a treaty with the Nara that ensured that neither clan went into battle with each other. She had also unlocked a new level of the Kagemane Jutsu that the Nara clan hadn’t even thought was possible: the Shadow Stitching Jutsu, a variant of the Kagemane Jutsu that utilized the shadows to rip enemies to shreds using their own shadow by “stitching” the user’s chakra to the shadow of the target. 

“I...how would we know that Shikamaru _has_ fixated on her? What if, it’s just..a crush. Children have crushes Shikaku.” Yoshino knew that her reasoning sounded desperate to her own ears. Nara’s did not have crushes in the way that other people did. They had _interests_ that either faded or grew to a point where those interests became _certainties_. These certainties became spouses and the mothers/fathers of the future generations of the clan. The Nara felt more deeply than the Uchiha (with the added benefit of not going insane from it) and they were more loyal than the Inuzuka and Hatake. They did nothing by halves and often interests became certainties within a matter of days (and fizzled out within the same time frame). 

Shikaku had told Yoshino two days after meeting her that she was going to be his wife when they got older. Yoshino had scowled and asked why she would want to marry a lazy bum like him. (His father had laughed. Her mother had sighed in exasperation but the look on the ambitious woman’s face said that she agreed). 

She felt her husband come up behind her, his warmth a comfort. “No one besides Shikamaru will actually know whether or not he’s fixated on her. His interest in Naruto is so out of character that I think its a valid possibility that he is fixated. We should be prepared if he is.” 

“And if he’s not,” Yoshino challenged turning to face him. Looking up into Shikaku’s scarred face and into dark grey eyes, so dark to almost be black, she could see the glint of worry in his eyes. For their son but also for their friends’ legacy. 

The man frowned down at her, hands coming to rest on her waist. “We both know that Nara don’t do crushes. Fixation or not, his interest in Naruto is concerning. Not,” he stated as he heard the sharp intake of breath escape from her lips “because of who she is but because of the village. Think Yo-chan. If the Sandaime won’t even let you or Mikoto-san or Hitomi-san adopt Naruto into the clans, he won’t be too pleased with our son being interested in her. The Sandaime is smart enough to know that Shikamaru wouldn’t be forced into a marriage or some political maneuvering on our end for Naruto but he will suspect him because he’s a Nara.”

“Shikamaru is a _child_.” She hissed back. “A child Shikaku.”

“I know. But he’s a _Nara_ child and we both know what that means. Fixation or not, interest or not, we need to be careful. The girl needs friends and Shikamaru would be a great friend for her. Choza said that Choji is wary of her which he must of gotten from Ino-chan or Yuriko-san.” Shikaku grimaced at the name of the Yamanaka Matriarch, a sentiment that Yoshino shared. The Nara-Yamanaka relationship was tense now that Yamanaka Yuriko had shared her sentiments regarding the little blonde Uzumaki. Yuriko couldn’t see why Yoshino, and her own husband for that matter, wanted anything to do with “ _the demon_ ”.

It made Yoshino’s blood boil just thinking about it. Sighing she asked, “Well what do we do?”

“We wait and see. It’s a possibility that needs to be monitored.” 

Yoshino nodded and turned back to her melon pan dough. Shikaku’s hands tightened around her waist before he stepped back from her to lean on left against the counter. He watched her as she grabbed a knife in order to score the dough. 

She hoped he couldn’t see her trembling hands. But knew that he did. Her husband missed nothing. 

As she cut into the spongy softness of the dough, she allowed herself a brief moment of longing. Longing for the little girl with the sun in her hair who had her father’s coloring but her mother’s soul. Longing to see her up close and not from a Hokage approved distance, this child that she had talked to in her friend’s belly as her own was swelling, had sat and stitched onesies for with Hitomi and Mikoto with since Kushina was terrible at anything domestic that wasn’t cooking or gardening. Had cried for that first time and all the hundreds of times after when she had been denied to see her, to love her, to protect her. 

And now, now, her son had a _interest_ in that girl with sun in her hair and fire in her eyes. An interest that might be something horribly _more_. 

Yoshino blinked, well aware of the tears that ran down her cheeks without her permission and dripped onto the knife that cut into the dough. _Plink. Plink. Plink._

The tears were still in her eyes as she placed the bread into the oven. 


	2. The Encounter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shikamaru meets Naruto and embarrasses himself but also gains a crush.

It wasn’t often that a person alleviated his boredom. Nara Shikamaru often dealt with the world with eyes half-closed and whirring thoughts that bounced around his head and only ceased with sleep. 

Today was the first day of the academy, and he was annoyed to be going at all. He knew that there was nothing that he would learn from the academy that he didn’t already know theory wise and the academy taijutsu style was not suited to him (too many movements, too much energy wasted). If anything, the only benefit to him going to the academy, at least for this first year, was being able to see people outside of the Nara, Yamanaka, and Akimichi clans. He didn’t understand why he couldn’t just go have “play dates” with other clans as his mother was friends with the matriarchs of the Hyuuga, Uchiha, Aburame, and Inuzuka clans. All four clans had kids his age. Did he _really_ need to wake up at seven in the morning, five days out the week to spend eight hours with kids he would barely be able to talk to anyway thanks to the fact they were in school? 

He didn’t think so. As usual, his mother disagreed. 

“Nara Shikamaru! Don’t you dare fall asleep in class!” His mother began as they trekked hand in hand to the red rotund building that was Konoha’s Shinobi Academy. Nara Yoshino’s voice was pitched lower than it normally was-and by that he meant that it was a proper outside voice and not her normal shrill yells-as she continued to instruct her lazy son on what not to do. Yoshino’s lecture was broken by greetings either from the woman herself towards one of her many friends or from villagers who recognized the headstrong former kunoichi turned housewife. 

(His Uncle Inoichi had said that his mom had been terrifyingly bad ass when she was on active duty. His remark that she was still terrifying got him whacked with a spatula by said mother and put on deer herding duty for the weekend by his father who was _beyond whipped_ for his mother. For some reason.)

Shikamaru didn’t realize when the duo had reached the academy until his mother was bending down to his level with suspiciously shiny eyes to kiss his cheek. He heard a snicker from behind his mother, and looking recognized the annoying form of Inuzuka Kiba, and rolled his eyes. He was still holding his mother’s hands. But unlike the civilian boy directly behind Kiba who dropped his mother’s hand like it burned him after seeing what (or who) Kiba was snickering at, Shikamaru held on. He liked holding his mom’s hands and he enjoyed her kisses. His mother had calluses littered all over her hands thanks to being a kunoichi who was often placed on the frontlines but there were little spaces on her hands where there was nothing but smooth skin. 

After kissing both his cheeks and his forehead, his mother sniffed and stroked his cheek while she scrutinized him with the same eyes he saw in the mirror everyday. The woman nodded to herself before murmuring, “Remember what I said Maru-kun.” Shikamaru had only heard the don’t sleep part which was promptly ignored since that was the only thing he intended to do besides eat the bento in his free hand. But he nodded anyway.

“Yes mom.”

“Your father will pick you up from school okay? Have fun!” And with another sniff, Yoshino’s turned on her heel to greet Inuzuka Tsume, Kiba’s mom. Shikamaru watched the two link arms laughing at something before he turned himself and trudged in behind the still snickering Kiba and the red-faced civilian boy.

_Troublesome_

* * *

Once inside the classroom, Shikamaru had settled next to Akimichi Choji, who could be considered Shikamaru’s best friend since he spent the most time with the boy. Shikamaru found Choji to be kind but weak-willed and even weaker-minded. The Akimichi heir was sensitive about his weight which didn’t make sense to Shikamaru since it was needed for his clan jutsu, but whatever. Beyond his constant munching of snacks, the boy didn’t make much noise which made him a good companion when Shikamaru had enough of the last of their predestined trio, Yamanaka Ino.

Said girl was sitting in the front row-of course-surrounded by a bunch of civilian girls who were obviously enamored with the blonde heiress. Shikamaru could tell that the civilian girls had never been around a Shinobi born child as they fretted over whether or not they were dressed properly for the academy by asking the preening Yamanaka who responded like she was giving life advice to the masses. _Ino_ wasn’t dressed properly for the academy with her white shorts and light blue tank top that was paired with a pair of wedged espadrille sandals. 

He could see Uchiha Sasuke sitting in the second row to his right with who he thought was Aburame Shino on his left because of the shades on the other boy’s face. Kiba had settled a row beneath Shikamaru and was feeding...a dog? Were pets even allowed? 

Slowly the other students filed in followed by their sensei, a scarred man named Umino Iruka who looked kind but stern and his assistant a something-last-name Mizuki but Shikamaru was already falling asleep. 

* * *

The academy was as he had suspected: boring. The only highlight of the day-if one wanted to call it that- had been the appearance of a girl who had showed up an hour late. Shikamaru hadn’t seen her but had heard her and her voice had sent shivers down his spine. She was several feet away from him but the Nara swore that every word she spoke came from directly beside him. He felt like there was a weight pressed against him and the loud voice of the girl was echoing throughout his bones. 

Beyond the strange bodily response, Shikamaru thought that the owner of the voice _had_ to be trouble. She was loud and didn’t even call their sensei, well, sensei. She called him Umino-san and then had the gall (the balls, the audacity) to inform Iruka-Sensei that she’d call him sensei when he “taught her something these other useless hacks in this fucking building didn’t. The title of sensei is earned ya know?” Iruka-Sensei _obviously_ hadn’t taken that well and had sent the girl to the Hokage with a note for the Sandaime. 

The response of their teacher made Shikamaru wake up fully. Who was this girl that got sent directly to the _Hokage_ for misbehavior instead of her parents? Was she related to the Hokage in some way? And if she wasn’t, what was interesting about her that the Sandaime would bother to deal with her? 

The girl huffed out a whatever and left. Iruka-Sensei closed the door in such a way that it was not _quite_ a slam but was loud enough to imply that he wanted to. The genial man’s face was creased with annoyance and his scar with puckered with his dark scowl. The whole class was silent for a moment before whispers broke out among the students:

“Who was that girl?”

“Does she have no respect for her elders?”

“Who does she think she is?”

The voice of one Yamanaka Ino rose above the rest as she called out imperiously, “Who was that Iruka-Sensei, she won’t be joining our class will she?” Shikamaru hoped that she would be. He wanted to...well he didn’t know what he wanted for once which was unsettling in its own way. The Nara rarely was in the dark, especially about his own feelings. He knew that he wanted to see that girl, if not to hear her voice again and feel whatever it was that he felt when she had been speaking. 

He was curious. About a person. 

“That was a student who will be joining our class, Uzumaki Naruto. I’m sure that you all will meet her sometime this week.” The man sighed out before clapping his hands together as the class broke out into more whispers, these with a darker undertone. Shikamaru caught “ _that girl? My mom says she’s bad news_ ” which piqued his curiosity even more before Iruka-Sensei managed to get the class under control again. 

“Now let’s return to our lesson on the Shinobi Rules...” Shikamaru tuned out the voice of Iruka-Sensei as he thought about that odd statement. _Bad news? How was a child bad news?_ He thought as he stared at the tense backs of the civilian children below him. What was more curious however, was the tense form of Ino.

* * *

Lunch was a blessing he decided as he reclined next to Choji on the rooftop of the building. He was pretty sure that they weren’t allowed on top of the building as Uncle Inoichi had recommended the spot to him yesterday evening. The Yamanaka Clan Head was mischievous and troublesome in his own way after all. 

Shikamaru found that he wasn’t able to go back to sleep after The Mystery Girl situation as he dubbed it in his mind. What made it even worse was what he had overheard on his way with Choji to the rooftop. That girl, Uzumaki Naruto supposedly, was some kind of demon according to Ino. The blonde had been talking to her group of civilian sycophants (how the Yamanaka heiress had managed to create a loyal following within three hours was beyond him) while Choji and Shikamaru trailed behind her. 

“My mom says that that Uzumaki girl is a real monster. Apparently, she like, killed her parents and some other people when she was younger than we were. She told me to stay away from her and my mom doesn’t lie so...”

The conversation had ended there as Shikamaru and Choji had reached the stairs to the roof while Ino and her group continued down the hall to the doors to the playground. 

The snippet that he had caught left him with more questions than answers though. He was sure that Ino was full of shit, mainly because if there was such a dangerous girl in the academy, then _his_ parents would have warned him about it. Along with Ino’s parents and Choji’s parents because of their family alliance. But he couldn’t deny that Ino sounded scared and so did the other civilian that he’d heard talk about this Uzumaki Naruto before Iruka-Sensei got the class back in order. 

The only theory he could think of was a kekkei genkai that made her dangerous. That would explain why the Hokage was dealing with her directly instead of her parents (if they were alive) as Konoha took bloodline limits very seriously. But still, the Hokage wouldn’t-

“Ne, Shikamaru-kun?” Shikamaru twisted to look at Choji who was munching happily on his chips and raised an eyebrow at the rotund boy before grunting. “What do you think is up with that girl? I mean, I never heard someone talk to an adult that way.” 

“I think she’s troublesome.” This was true, Shikamaru _did_ think the girl was trouble. But he was also curious. Who was she? 

Choji hummed. “You think everyone is troublesome,” Shikamaru could hear the smile in his friends voice, “but this time it’s valid. Those were some really bad accusations that Ino was talking about ya know.”

It was Shikamaru’s turn to hum. “I don’t think that our parents would allow us to go to school with someone who was a mass murderer before age seven. Don’t worry about it.”

Choji didn’t say anything else but he realized that the Akimichi was lost in his own thoughts. The two boys finished the rest of the lunch in silence. 

* * *

Nara Shikaku’s patted his son’s head when he saw him and steered him towards the Hokage Tower citing his need to finish up a few forms before going home. Shikamaru grunted his affirmative and walked with his father. 

Unlike his mother, his father didn’t really talk unless he needed to much like his son. The man preferred to watch and observe from the background, something that Shikamaru had picked up himself and a fact that his mother bemoaned since beyond her constant yelling at either of them at any given time, their house was normally quiet. Shikamaru was so lost in his thoughts that it took him a while to notice that his father had asked him something. It was only when the older man had tugged on his ear that he stopped and looked up at him frowning. 

“Yeah?”

“What are you thinking about so hard that I have to call your name five times and grab you to get your attention?” Shikamaru blushed. Five times? This Uzumaki girl was more troublesome than he thought. 

Shikamaru opened his mouth to respond before noticing that they were nearing his dad’s office in the Hokage Tower. When did they get here?

“Well today there was-oof!” He felt like he had been hit with a tree. He fell hard and the wind was knocked out of him as another body fell on top of his with a girlish squeak that made every nerve ending in his body stand at attention. 

“Sorry dattebayo!” Shikamaru’s entire body froze and subsequently began shivering as _that voice_ burned through his veins. He was aware of a body on top of him, vaguely aware of a soft (so soft and warm) hand pulling him up by his shirt front, and ignorant to the bemused look being sent his way by his father as he met a pair of dark blue eyes.

The eyes were set in a round face and framed by long blonde lashes that curled at the ends. A shock of golden hair that was even brighter than the lighting in the hallway was pulled into pigtails, each tied back with an obnoxiously neon orange ribbon. The face itself sported full pink lips and scarred cheeks that had three thin scars upon each that looked like whiskers. 

The mouth was moving. Wait the mouth was-

“Did I give you brain damage or something or are ya stupid and I made you dumber Pineapple-kun?” That voice was husky and lilting and even more demanding than his mother’s. Shikamaru straightened.

“I’m fine.” He cleared his throat before awkwardly sticking out his hand. “I’m uh, well, Shikamaru. Nara Shikamaru.” 

The girl (angel, fairy, goddess) looked amused, those large eyes of her crinkling in mirth. When she took his hand his whole body shuddered and she paused. “Are you cold?” When Shikamaru grunted out a no- what happened to his voice?- she shot him a beaming smile that made his heart stop. “I’m Uzumaki Naruto dattebayo! Nice ta’ meetcha Shika! Well bye!” 

The walking personification of the sun was leaving! “Wait!” Shikamaru tightened his grip on the other which made her eyebrows shoot up in surprise. “Are you...I-I mean do you go to the academy? The Shinobi Academy I mean...uh...” _Stupid, stupid, so fucking stupid._

“Yeah, I do. Do you go?”

“I...yeah.” He was still holding her hand he noticed as he looked down at his feet. She didn’t seem too bothered by it he thought and her hand was so warm and so soft and he was...what was he? He felt _right_...she was so beautiful and-

“Thank you! No one’s ever called me beautiful before ya know!” The beaming smile was back and he felt like he was gonna burn under its intensity. This girl didn’t do anything by halves did she? She collided with him with the force of a meteor and now she was trying to burn him alive with her Kami-given smile? Wait...he said that she was beautiful out loud? Shikamaru’s face burned for another reason.

“I-well...those people a-a-are blind. You’re really pre..pr-pretty. I like your hair.” What was wrong with his mouth? Why couldn’t he shut the fuck up?

Kami-“Oh, thank you Shikamaru.” It was said so softly with an undercurrent of surprise that Shikamaru looked up at her instead of trying to burn a whole through his foot. Her eyes were closed in happiness he thought and her lips were stretched in the biggest smile he’d ever seen( a warm feeling coursed through him at the thought that he was responsible for the expression). Shikamaru didn’t know what was brighter: her hair, her eyes, her smile, or the sun. 

He thought he would stand there standing dumbly at her forever, clutching her hand like a lifeline even as vibrations emanated from their single point of physical contact making him giddy and light-headed. He couldn’t think. No he could, but for the first time, there weren’t multiple threads of thought being disseminated by his brain but rather he was filled with thoughts of sunshine hair and warm, sunny smiles. 

_Mine._

It was only when she kissed his cheek that he let her hand go in shock, a weird sound, somewhere between a whimper and yelp escaping his lips. The sound was drowned out by her yell of “Bye Shika, Jiji, Pineapple-san!” 

And then she was gone. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The background for the first chapter in Shikamaru’s POV. There is only one chapter left that will detail why Naruto wasn’t in class and is a mix between Hiruzen’s POV and Naruto’s. Then we’re done!


	3. Restarts and Resolves

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hiruzen convinces Naruto to give the academy another try, Iruka gets grilled, and Naruto’s perspective on meeting Shikamaru. Plus, some background on Naruto.

Sarutobi Hiruzen often found himself thinking about the fact that he was getting too old for this shit. 

Today seemed like a day where _everyone_ wanted to test his patience, but none more so than his granddaughter, Uzumaki Naruto. Hiruzen loved the girl truly, but sometimes he wished he could strangle the little girl who was, admittedly, a menace to society. What was even worse than a seven year old girl with a grudge? 

A wife with a camera capturing the result of said grudge. 

Sarutobi Biwako was a beautiful woman even in her sixties who looked like she was just getting out of her late thirties if that. Dark, wavy hair framed her heart shaped face and swayed as the woman bent in order to get a better angle of her entrapped husband, her laughter tinkling around the room. Hiruzen wanted to be annoyed at his wife for not helping him, but even he could admit that the situation was funny.

The little brat had trapped him in home office by sticking him to the ceiling with the stickiest set of ninja wire he’d ever felt in his life. Naruto was even kind enough to make sure that the trap sprung in such a way that he’d be able to face the floor instead of the ceiling he was stuck to. _Where does she come up with this shit?_ He thought fondly as his wife laughed below him.

“Are you done?” Hiruzen asked dryly. 

There was a few more clicks from the camera before Biwako straightened, wiping tears from her eyes. The woman rocked on her feet before sighing “Eh, I guess.”

It was some twenty minutes later before she managed to get him down that she remarked, “ _is_ this ninja wire Hiruzen? If it is, this is the highest grade stuff I’ve ever seen! I wonder if Misa-chan coated it with something?”

Hiruzen twitched. _If she had coated it with something, then you’re to blame_ , he thought annoyed. He _knew_ that it was a bad idea to let Biwako take Naruto under her wing. His wife had been the head of the assassination division of ANBU for thirty years before retiring ten years ago. Biwako was a master of trapping, seduction, and poisons as well. All things she was slowly but surely teaching their little Naruto. 

_Weren’t the two working on the best poisons for coating different materials?_ Shaking his head, Hiruzen headed back into his bedroom while ducking _another_ trap that would have beheaded him if he wasn’t the Hokage (he had doubts that some of his best Shinobi would have been able to dodge the serrated axe that came at his head faster than the eye could track). So it seemed like Naruto was not mad but _pissed_ , huh. He heard his traitorous chortling behind him as she ducked the same trap to follow him into their bedroom. 

_Women. Sadists, all of them_. 

* * *

“Aisaka-San, please cancel my meeting for the next two hours,” Hiruzen called to his secretary without breaking eye contact with the seven year old girl. 

Uzumaki Naruto was a small thing, she had a body that was lithe and delicate looking, and cherubic features to match. The scowl on her face was anything but angelic as she pouted at him, blue eyes glowering. If he was a lesser man, he’d be intimidated. She was, an intense little girl who while adorable, was also ridiculously stealthy and dangerous if you got caught in one of her pranks (traps). She would make a fine Shinobi. 

Which lead him to this staring match. He was some sixty-two years old and was sitting in a staring match with a child. On the bright side, he could have been doing paperwork. 

“Naruto-chan, you must go to the ninja academy.” 

He wasn’t sure how many times that the two had had this conversation over the past two weeks as the school year began anew. Hiruzen had entered Naruto into the Shinobi Academy two years ago after he had mistakenly told the council that she was very adept at stealth and tracking. News that had intrigued the Shinobi Council and terrified the Civilian Council. It was decided that Naruto would be placed into the academy in order to one, alleviate the fears of the idiot civilians and two, began training her in order to keep the young Jinchuriki out of Danzo’s hands. 

At first it had been fine. The then five year old had been ecstatic to experience something new outside of the Sarutobi Compound for once outside of the year that she had been living there ever since... _The Incident_. He had hoped that the academy teachers would see the same things he saw, a beautiful little girl who was immensely bright. 

That did not happen. 

Naruto was miserable. And Uzumaki Naruto’s misery was a selfish being that loved company. The five year old had behaved for approximately a month- exactly four weeks longer than his daughter Kotone, and his eldest son, Kaoru, had bet between them. (The two little shits gave their precious “Misa-nee” between two (Kotone) and five (Kaoru) hours before the blond troublemaker flipped her shit). Naruto, in her righteous (and rightful) indignation had broken into all of teachers homes and her classmates and drugged all of them with a slow acting laxative and itching power. Hiruzen had dealt with shitty students and academy teachers for two weeks. He swore he could still smell shit surrounding the door to his office, almost two years after the incident. 

Needless to say, Naruto was reprimanded by himself and praised by the rest of his family for her creative vindictive actions, even Asuma, his wayward son had heard of her adventures in the capital of the Fire Nation where he had run away, had sent a letter and over one thousand ryo as a gift for the girl. To Kaoru’s horror, “Asu-oji”, had replaced him as the favorite uncle. (Hiruzen was pretty sure that this was why Kaoru had impregnated a random woman so shortly after this event as the boy didn’t even tell his parents that they were expecting a grandchild. Rather, Sarutobi Kaoru told Naruto that she would be a big sister, something that made him her favorite again). In the aftermath of this event, the civilians had been in uproar and Naruto had been spirited away to the Sarutobi compound where Kotone and Biwako took the little girl under their wings.

Hiruzen tried again a year later only to have to deal with Naruto flooding the academy this time with some ridiculously hard to clean goop that took two months to wipe off and, he was sure this was a theme, smelled like shit. 

He ended up assigning Shisui and Itachi Uchiha to keep up with his granddaughter when Biwako went on her diplomatic trips and the Twins were doing ANBU work, something he thought his most promising Shinobi would be able to handle. In hindsight, it would have been fine, if only Kaoru hadn’t told her about the Sharingan. The eldest Sarutobi son’s descriptions of the dojustu that could predict movements had little girl’s curiosity piqued and she went out of her way to fuck with the two. She pranked them to hell and back, sent them on panicked wild goose chases (along with half the Shinobi force who were terrified of what Biwako and her miniature, Kotone would do should “Misa-chan” not be found), and was generally annoying. He wasn’t surprised when he received a formal missive from the elders of the Uchiha Clan some three weeks later, politely asking (demanding) that he stop the torture of two Uchiha prodigies. He had never seen two Shinobi look so relieved to be relieved of their duties. 

Even worse, Naruto had snuck into the Uchiha compound and poked Uchiha Fugaku, the _Clan Head_ in the eye in her attempt to see the Sharingan. (It must be noted that no one knew that the blonde menace was doing this for the sole purpose of seeing “the red eyes in action dattebayo!”. It must also be noted that it never occurred to said menace to _ask_ ). Thankfully, that incident had diffused the tension between the villagers and the Uchiha clan somewhat, at the expense of the pride of the Uchiha, but still. No one was wary of a clan that could be fucked with by a child that while widely regarded to be evil incarnate, was also widely regarded to be a obnoxious dumbass. 

Both of which were not true, but, whatever Hiruzen thought tiredly at the time.

“ _You_ go to the academy since you like it so much Jiji”, the little blonde sassed back. “I mean, ya won’t shut up about it ‘tattebayo!”

He could feel a headache coming. 

Sighing, he said, “Naruto-chan, it is important for you to go to the academy to receive formal training. If you want to be a Shinobi-“

“I want to be a housewife! Like Bi-baachan!” The girl stubbornly interrupted, pouting. Crossing her arms over her chest, Naruto flopped down onto the floor, her back to him. 

Hiruzen raised an eyebrow. A housewife? Setting aside the idea of the vibrant child before him as a housewife, he didn’t think _his_ wife was a housewife. Biwako may have spent most of her time at home, but there was little...domestic about the former S-Rank assassin. The woman put the fear of Kami into him, Sarutobi Hiruzen, who was _nicknamed_ Kami no Shinobi. 

“Your baa-chan used to be a Shinobi Naru-chan” the man told her gently. He could work with Naruto’s hero worship of his wife. 

“Liar!”

Hiruzen groaned before signaling one of the five ANBU around the office to send for his wife. He was sure that on the way there and back to deliver the summons, half of his Shinobi force would hear of this conversation the damn gossips. 

* * *

It had taken Biwako twenty minutes and a promise of Ichiraku ramen for dinner Naruto to relent to giving the academy another try. 

His wife asked him to bring Iruka around for her to meet (interrogate) before the academy session started. He quickly agreed.

* * *

As a former Hunter-nin, Iruka had met the Hokage before. He had _not_ met his wife, the formidable Sarutobi née Uchiha Biwako. 

After entering the Hokage office and bowing to both Sarutobi, he turned to the Third Hokage only to have him gesture to the tea sipping beauty sitting daintily on the single chaise in the room. 

Clearing his throat, Iruka bowed again before hastily sitting in one of two chairs besides the Hokage’s seat in the spacious office. For a solid five minutes, the time that it took Sarutobi Biwako to finish her tea, Umino Iruka sweated as the woman stared at him without blinking the entire time. 

Clicking her tongue and placing her cup on the small coffee table in front of her, the woman turned to fully face him, which made Iruka straighten even more than he already was.

“Your parents died in the Kyuubi attack some seven years ago did they not?” This was not the question that Iruka was expecting. He wasn’t even expecting the Hokage’s wife to be in the office. A normal briefing about his plans for this year’s class of first years that was heavily stacked with clan heirs. 

Iruka cleared his throat again. “Ah, yes, Sarutobi-sama.”

The woman nodded and continued to stare at him some more. He got up to two minutes and thirty seconds before she spoke again: “Uzumaki Naruto,” her eyes narrowed on him as he involuntarily flinched at the name but she didn’t say anything, continuing in that same soft voice as before. “She will be attending this year’s class. As you may be aware, she has had...some issues with the academy and its various... _instructors_.” The word ‘instructor’ was said the same way Iruka would say ‘roach’. He shivered. “Hiruzen assures me that you’re the best person to teach the next generation, which is great,” it did not sound like it was great to him, “but I need to be assured that you are the best teacher to teach my lovely Misaki-hime.” 

Misaki. Beautiful blossom. _Ah, so Biwako-Sama was close to the Jinchuriki_ , he thought apprehensively. _Was the Hokage as close to her?_

“I...” Iruka paused. He had the feeling that if he lied right now, it would be the last lie that he would tell. “I’m not sure if I’m the best teacher to teach...Uzumaki-san. I have...biases, as you may have picked up on Sarutobi-sama, but I do believe that all children should be able to learn. As with all my students, I will not treat Uzumaki-san with any favoritism or hatred.” 

“I see.” Biwako-sama pursed her lips before nodding and pouring two more cups of tea. “Drink some tea boy.” 

He drank the tea.

It was another five minutes as they both sipped their tea, before Biwako-sama spoke again. Iruka was well aware of the scratch of the Hokage’s pen to paper and the chakra signatures of the ANBU around him as he waited.

“I am trusting you with my beautiful blossom. I will warn you that if you already have unfavorable, shall we say, opinions towards Misa-chan that they’re gonna get worse before they get better. You were honest with me and I shall be honest with you: she doesn’t want to be there and hates the academy because of her previous experiences. She is most likely gonna make your life miserable and then some. She is going to disrespect you so thoroughly that you will think that she had birthed you. There _is_ after all, nothing like the disrespect a parent can give to child,” the woman remarked dryly with a smile. “But be patient. She’s very sweet and kind and sensitive. And if you find your patience running thin, well, I’ll find my control over my bloodlust running thin so-“

“Bi, don’t threaten my Shinobi”, the Sandaime interrupted. Biwako-sama tossed her head, pretty black waves falling around her face. 

“It wasn’t a threat dear.” The smile she sent Iruka was chilling. 

* * *

Naruto was regretting all her promises as she trudged back to Hokage-jiji. Bi-baachan told her that she was gonna make sure that this so-called sensei was different. _Tch, should have known better_ Naruto thought bitterly. Naruto could smell the kindness on him but that kindness had disappeared when he had opened the door and saw her standing there. She wanted to punch the fuck in the face. 

She decided to find out where he lived and ruin his sense of security instead. 

The Scar-Fuck as she was calling him, had given her a note that he had written on the spot, and told her to go back to Jiji. So she was.

Naruto ignored the whispers of the villagers and pretended that they didn’t exist as she made her way to the Hokage Tower. 

She had the thought again, that she continued to have more and more lately, of running away to a place with sand so black that it looked like a rainbow when the sun hit it and filled with whirlpools. There was yearning in her soul to go there, to see if that was a place where she belonged. She knew that as much as the Sarutobi family loved her- or said that they did, a traitorous voice whispered- she did not belong with them. She was too bright and too angry and too...her. 

Naruto nodded at the two chuunin guards guarding the entrance of the tower before skipping up the steps and pretending to stomp on her bad mood with each step. Why should she feel bad for something that she should have expected? 

_Stupid, so very stupid_.

* * *

She got chewed out of course and was told to apologize to Iruka (so _that_ was his name), which there was no way in hell _she_ was apologizing to him. Her existence insulted him, not the other way around. 

Storming out of the Hokage Tower was a regular occurrence. What was not, however, was bumping into someone else. There were five rooms on the fifth floor of the Hokage Tower: the Hokage’s office, the Jonin Commander’s office, the council chambers, and the ‘domestic’ offices of the Hokage which featured a kitchen and a bedroom. There were also three storage closets and two bathrooms besides the private one in the ‘domestic’ office. The point however, was that generally speaking, there were only about ten people on the fifth floor at any given time unless the Hokage was in a council meeting or giving out A-rank or above missions. 

So Naruto was very surprised to bump into someone relatively close to her height and weight class. 

The first thing she noticed was that he smelt good. The... _thing_ inside her perked up in interest at the smell. _That_ had never happened before, but then again, she hadn’t been aware of _the thing_ until last month so it wasn’t like she was familiar with it too much. 

The next thing she noticed was that she was probably crushing him with the way that he wheezed. Naruto hurriedly popped off of him before dragging him up with her. The boy, it was a boy, stared at with wide glazed eyes.

She worried briefly if he was scared of her, a lot of kids were, but he didn’t seem scared but rather, nervous? Sniffing discretely she noticed that his nerves didn’t have a tinge of fear to them but rather... _what was that_? 

He was super fucking awkward that was for sure, Naruto observed as he stammered his way through an introduction. _But it’s cute_ , she thought in amusement as she gave him her name back. Looking him over she realized that he was taller than her-who wasn’t- and had to be the palest person she’d ever seen in her life. The boy’s skin was like chalk or something. Were he and the sun not on speaking terms?

But other than being extraordinarily pale, the boy was well, normal. Or maybe above normal? He reminded her of the two Uchiha ANBU guards that she had had that one time with their aristocratic faces and romantic looks. This boy looked every bit as aristocratic as those Uchiha but where there was a softness to the Uchiha, this boy, _Shikamaru_ her mind supplied, was all sharpness. He looked like he had been sculpted not painted.

The softest part of his face was his eyes which were almond shaped for the most part, but wider, and a mix between the algae that grew over the koi pond every once in a while in the Sarutobi compound and the grey weathered stone of the shrine that was decorated with monkeys off to the right of the very same koi pond. His eyelashes were thicker and longer than her own which wasn’t fair, obviously. 

Nara Shikamaru was beautiful. And he smelled good which was even better. When he grabbed her hand, she realized that he felt even better than he smelled. 

And then. Then he called her beautiful. He liked her hair. 

Not once had anyone called her beautiful. Sure, her baachan called her pretty and cute, but she had never heard the woman call her beautiful. The boy’s voice was dripping with desperate sincerity even as the sour tinge of his nerves filled her nose to block out the smell of his desperate need to make her believe. He really believed it. She was beautiful to someone?

He thought her hair was pretty?

She didn’t particularly remember walking away or saying bye to Shikamaru. She did, however, remember kissing his cheek. Her lips burned and she wondered if his cheek burned in the same manner that her lips did. 

Naruto sniffed. She’d apologize to Scar-Fuck and then she’d be in the clear. She was gonna get as close to the first person her age who showed her some kindness. 

Nara Shikamaru. How...interesting. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the end of the introductory work to this little, semi serious universe I’ve set up here. I hope that I’ve done the characters justice in the case of Shikamaru and Naruto, everyone else is more or less supposed to be OOC. I found Shikamaru pretty hard to write as I wanted to make him serious and nonchalant but also childlike in a sense. I hope you enjoyed this!


End file.
